Issue 1

February 2017

Issue 1: February 2017

Issue 1

In this Issue

The election of President Duterte marks the end of an era of the post-Marcos ‘Edsa regimes’, spanning a period of more than three decades, from Cory Aquino to her son Noynoy Aquino. The masses, frustrated and desperate in the face of the inability of the ‘Edsa regimes’ to find lasting solutions to the country’s ongoing and chronic socio-economic problems, placed Duterte, a warlord, in power. After more than three decades of ‘Edsa rule’ we still face mass unemployment, low wages, an agrarian crisis, acute shortage of housing and little or non-existent social services.

Do recent international political developments at the centers of the capitalist global empire – the electoral victory of Donald Trump in the United States and the exit of Britain from the European Union – herald the end of globalization? If so, what capitalist or non-capitalist alternatives have emerged to replace it?

In 2017, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marks the fiftieth year of its founding with the Philippines as the host country. Civil society organizations (CSOs) and peoples’ organizations across the region have been challenging the regional organization to address issues and concerns that affect the peoples of Southeast Asia. Among the more prominent CSO concerns are: (1) lack of popular participation in ASEAN decision-making; (2) rising inequalities between and among member countries; (3) weakening democracies and prevalence of authoritarian governing modes resulting in human rights deficits; (4) dominance of an elite-centered development strategy and the resulting failure to attain inclusive growth; (5) competition rather than complementarity in trade and investment relations; (6) absence of sanctions against rogue regimes; (7) lack of a regional identity and unity; (8) weak social protection for all residents and migrants; and (9) prevalence of gender inequalities.

Before the year ended, media reported that President Rodrigo Duterte gave the go-ahead to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to sign the administration’s much-hyped solution to contractualization --- a new Department Order (D.O.) replacing the current D.O. 18-A. The Labor Department had circulated a draft of the new D.O. last December 12, 2016.

For twenty years, Elmer and his men freely mine in the tiny but gold-rich island of Lahuy Island in the town of Caramoan in Bicol. As artisans in the 21st century, they have long been eking out a living by selling their gold to Kapitana, the elected village chief and guild master of the miners, who trades the gold in Manila for higher rates. The relationship of the miners and Kapitana is semi-feudal–the miners hold a seemingly communal ownership of Lahuy, provided they pay their tribute to Kapitana. And true to the semi-feudal set-up of Lahuy, the miners’ families are practically immobile. Most, if not all of them, depend their lives exclusively on mining, and leaving the island is not an option.The film erstwhile had two proletarian characters–Elmer’s wife Linda and her co-teacher who work in a rural public school. Still, their wages pale in comparison to the money generated from gold, which barely meets the island folks’ subsistence.